Agnieszka Holland: “Violence is used as a political tool”

Polish director addresses the migration drama on the Belarusian border in ‘Green Border’

Agnieszka Holland, a regular at the Seminci, has landed in this 68th edition with Green Border, a chronicle of the migratory drama between Belarus and Poland, that ‘green border’ of forests that becomes a trap for thousands of people fleeing the wars in the Middle East encouraged by Lukashenko. With Russia’s acquiescence, the dictator turned this corridor into a strategy of pressure on the European Union, which was brutally responded to by the Polish government.

“The Polish authorities used this issue as a political tool; violence is used as a political tool”, reflected the veteran Polish filmmaker during the presentation of the film, a film that competes in the Official Selection. Its repercussion, after its premiere in Venice -where it won the Special Jury Prize-, has surprised Holland herself, as she acknowledged during the meeting with the media.

A sober black and white and a shoulder-mounted camera for a story that navigates between documentary and fiction and whose protagonists include some real Syrian refugees.

“The Polish border is just one of the borders in the world,” said the director of Europa, Europa, who also warned of the danger of “normalizing and institutionalizing the use of violence,” as opposed to the humanity and respect for migrants shown by some of the citizens portrayed in the film.